The invention concerns a combat vehicle, especially a military tank, with a hatchway in its armored roof and with periscopes in the immediate vicinity of the hatchway, each periscope having an ocular inside the vehicle and an objective outside it and a channel that accommodates the optical path extending between them.
Combat vehicles with a system of periscopes of this type are in themselves known (cf. e.g. DE OS 3 305 883 A1).
It has been demonstrated that the exposure of combat vehicles to attack from the air in particular confronts defensive technology with a number of serious problems. Both reactive and passive defensive measures are possible against hollow charges, although the former is more effective. Due to its structure, however, reactive defensive measures cannot be installed in narrow intervals in the vehicle, due to the periscopes for example, leaving these areas unprotected.
Another problem is represented by the periscopes themselves. Known embodiments consist, as has already been mentioned herein, of an objective outside the tank connected by a channel that accommodates the optical path to an ocular inside the tank. Most periscopes are made out of plastic to save weight. They accordingly themselves expand the unprotected areas on the tank.